Sunday, October 24, 2010

SoundHound app is magical

I haven’t added many apps to my Apple iPhone. Among them are Twitter, LinkedIn, a few news services and JiWire’s free Wi-Fi hot spot locator.
The only app I’ve paid for is one that I love. It’s SoundHound, an app that can identify music playing on the radio, over a store’s loudspeakers or at a sports stadium. I’ve used it in all of those locations and more to identify music when I don’t know the artist or song title.
Since my car radio doesn’t have a supplemental data readout, I also use it sometimes while driving. Because DJs rarely name the songs they’re playing.
I tried out both SoundHound and rival app Shazam before deciding to buy SoundHound.
At a Halloween-themed pumpkin patch today I heard some music that sounded familiar. I used SoundHound to identify the music as the theme from the movie “Poltergeist” by Jerry Goldsmith.
I also used it today to ID the song used on a rousing commercial about fans of the NFL. That song is “Home” by Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros.
I just tap on the app, it listens to the song, searches a database and identifies the artist and song title and provides other info like lyrics.
I can only describe how it works as magical. Well worth the $4.99 I paid for it.

Update: I later switched to Shazam and found the experience superior to that of SoundHound.

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